Turkey revises telecommunications tender to make transition to 4.5G: Official

Turkey did not cancel a planned 4G tender, but will make a 4.5G tender on Aug. 26, a high-level official from the Information and Communications Technologies Authority (BTK) has told Anadolu Agency. 

The official refuted several claims on some media outlets on July 30 about the cancelation of the planned 4G tender upon President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's harsh criticisms of 4G technology. 

"The 4G tender has not been cancelled. A tender will be held upon some revisions in the specifications on Aug. 26 for updated technologies, dubbed 4.5G technologies," said Acting BTK President Ömer Fatih Sayan.  

The planned tender for 4G Internet technology was delayed for three months by the BTK in May. The announcement followed Erdo?an's harsh criticism of 4G technology, saying Turkey should skip directly from 3G to 5G in two years. 

"It is not necessary to waste time with 4G technology. We need to move to 5G technology instead in two years," Erdo?an said April 21. 

"The world is talking about 5G technology right now. We are still at 3G," he added.

Technology experts suggested, however, that such a rapid transition was impossible.

Sayan said a number of changes have been made in the tender specifications, which are now being distributed to telecommunications firms, to increase the level of domestic research and development elements in the sector. 

"With these changes, Turkey will start to use 4.5G technology in April next year, paving the road for a possible transition to 5G technology with much more domestic means," he said. 

"We plan to enable Turkey to become one of the first countries that make a transition to 5G technology," he added. 

In the tender, 20 separate frequency segments were...